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Little Eden: A Child at War
The author, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, describes the time she spent a small, unconventional school in an English country town.
- GenresHistory
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Eva Figes
41 books33 followersEva Figes (born Eva Unger) is a German-born English author.
Figes has written novels, literary criticism, studies of feminism, and vivid memoirs relating to her Berlin childhood and later experiences as a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany. She arrived in Britain in 1939 with her parents and a younger brother. Figes is now a resident of north London and the mother of the academic Orlando Figes and writer Kate Figes.
In the 1960s she was associated with an informal group of experimental British writers influenced by Rayner Heppenstall, which included Stefan Themerson, Ann Quin and its informal leader, B. S. Johnson.
Figes's fiction has certain similarities with the writings of Virginia Woolf. The 1983 novel, Light, is an impressionistic portrait of a single day in the life of Claude Monet from sunrise to sunset.
Figes has written novels, literary criticism, studies of feminism, and vivid memoirs relating to her Berlin childhood and later experiences as a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany. She arrived in Britain in 1939 with her parents and a younger brother. Figes is now a resident of north London and the mother of the academic Orlando Figes and writer Kate Figes.
In the 1960s she was associated with an informal group of experimental British writers influenced by Rayner Heppenstall, which included Stefan Themerson, Ann Quin and its informal leader, B. S. Johnson.
Figes's fiction has certain similarities with the writings of Virginia Woolf. The 1983 novel, Light, is an impressionistic portrait of a single day in the life of Claude Monet from sunrise to sunset.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2024
this was a very interesting vignette on eva’s life- it definitely taught me a lot about jewish evacuees which was interesting and she had some great one liners about her war experience- i did find it hard to follow whether she was looking back or talking in the present tense! i did find the ending rather abrupt
March 22, 2016
This is rather a little unexpected gem of a book. I picked it up when I did because I'd just finished reading The Book Thief, so this moved from a novel about a German girl in WWII Germany, to a nonfiction book about a German Jewish girl living in England during the war.
Figes clearly did a lot of research to help flesh out her memories, and the subject matter at times gave me flashbacks to the research paper I wrote on WWII homefront activities in a local city. Figes discusses the impressions she had of her experiences, but also traces the history of the village where she stayed, and tracks the policies and changes made during the war. As a history major, I appreciated the added depth and the glimpses of the broader picture.
The story doesn't really go where you'd expect it to go, either. At nine years old, Figes only learned of her status as a Jew for the first time and had very little concept of what it meant. She does describe her feelings as she slowly came to understand what it meant and what was happening with her Jewish grandparents who had stayed behind in Germany. Overall, though, her memories are focused more on the day-to-day life of schoolroom and dormitory.
It's a bit of a slow read for only being 140 pages, but I'd recommend it to anyone really interested in the subject matter.
Figes clearly did a lot of research to help flesh out her memories, and the subject matter at times gave me flashbacks to the research paper I wrote on WWII homefront activities in a local city. Figes discusses the impressions she had of her experiences, but also traces the history of the village where she stayed, and tracks the policies and changes made during the war. As a history major, I appreciated the added depth and the glimpses of the broader picture.
The story doesn't really go where you'd expect it to go, either. At nine years old, Figes only learned of her status as a Jew for the first time and had very little concept of what it meant. She does describe her feelings as she slowly came to understand what it meant and what was happening with her Jewish grandparents who had stayed behind in Germany. Overall, though, her memories are focused more on the day-to-day life of schoolroom and dormitory.
It's a bit of a slow read for only being 140 pages, but I'd recommend it to anyone really interested in the subject matter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews